CHUYÊN đề SUMMARY ôn học SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA

CHUYÊN ĐỀ SUMMARY
I/ ĐỐI TƯỢNG
Dành cho học sinh ôn thi học sinh giỏi Quốc Gia
II/ MỤC TIÊU
Cung cấp lý thuyết viết cơ bản như cấu trúc cách viết một bài tóm tắt hồn chỉnh,cung cấp
các kỹ thuật viết như viết topic sentences, paraphrasing,collocations… và thực hành viết một
số dạng thường gặp nhằm giúp học sinh hoàn thành tốt phần summary trong các đợt thi học
sinh giỏi Quốc Gia.

III/ THỜI GIAN GIẢI QUYẾT CHUYÊN ĐỀ ( 60 tiết)

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CHUYÊN ĐỀ SUMMARY-ÔN HSG QUỐC GIA


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HOW TO ORGANIZE A SUMMARY
1. STEPS TO WRITE A SUMMARY
Always start with a summary statement including an action verb and the main idea of

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the whole text
Only retain the details that support the main idea
Paraphrase the main supporting details (Use your own words)
Do not copy the original
Maintain cohesion and coherence
Do not include your own opinion or interpretation in the summary
Demostrate the academic style with an awareness of formality, collocation. (less

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common lexical items)
+ Đọc hiểu ý chính bài text
Câu đầu tiên cần đề cập Summary statement (cần thông tin tham chiếu)
“The extract/article/paper/study/pasage/… “
In the extract, the author/writer
According to the extract,
+ Action verbs (discuss/compare/propose/define/compare/….) : cần chọn động từ cho thích
hợp
+ Main ideas of the whole text.
2. HOW TO PARAPHRASE
TIPS AND NOTES
Summary is the first part in the writing section of the NEC, making up 15 out of 60 points.
You will be required to paraphrase and summarize an academic passage of about 350 words.
You should finish this part less than 15 minutes.
DO:
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Concentrate on the full comprehension of the passage. Sometimes, the main idea
remains until the way lasr sentence such as the one in the NEC 2015. You can spend
up to 3 to 5 minutes if you are not sure about its central content after reading once or

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twice.
Highlight keywords and paraphrase them for later writing. Outline your writing if

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necessary.
Write in one paragraph only.
Start with a topic sentence that covers all the main contents of the passage. A

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conclusion is optional.
Calculate wisely how many words you will write to cover one paragraph and divide it

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into sentences as there is limitation on word number.
Choose words and phrases that suit the tone and diction of the original passage.
Use of wide range of grammatical structures and vocabulary.
Exclude details and examples.

DON’T :
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Copy too many words in the original passage. However, key concepts can be
maintained, for instance, the word “adjunct” in NEC 2016. Try to diversify by using

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your own words and various sentence structures.
Change the order of the original passage.
Add your own opinion and interpretation. The author’s point of view must be
maintained.

HOW TO SHARPEN YOUR SUMMARIZING SKILL
1. The best thing about the summarizing skill is that you can practice it while simultaneously
practicing your reading skill, so you can “kill two birds with one stone”. While reading any
kind of reading, you should pay attention to its idea organization, tone and diction. Moreover,
highlight the keywords and phrases. In the long run, this will develop for you a “systematic”
mindset which will enable you to easily recognize the general idea and structure of any
passage at first glance, but for literacy and non-academic passages, it will be much more
difficult to discern their idea organization. Fortunately, the passages featured in real tests will
invariably be academic ones with relatively straightforward structure.
2. The sources of summary exercises are often academic reading passages of the IELTS or
TOEFL test. Thus, you can refer to these sources to find suitable practice materials for
yourself. If you don’t have sufficient time to write your summary out, just picture out its
structures and plan it out in your head. If you can afford the time, write out the whole
paragraph and proof-read it to check whether it is easy to understand and contains must-have
information, whether the structure, tone, diction of the original passage are retained. If not,
re-write you have been satisfied with your composition.
3. The website offers summary exercises
with model answers. Compare your own paragraphs to the model ones so as to have a deeper
insight into your ability. Identify your particular weakness. Do you leave out important
information? Do you include too much information? Does your writing style correspond to
that of the original source? After you have recognized your shortcomings, bear them in mind
whenever you do a summary so as to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
4. For extra practice exercises, check out the writing task 1 of the TOEFL iBT test. In this
section, you have to summarize information from both reading and listening extracts.
Because you have to listen and read to take note of the information, you will be provided with

the chance to sharpen your skill of selecting key facts.
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HOW TO SHARPEN YOUR PARAPHARSING SKILL
1. When you learn vocabulary, don’t just study word only. Instead, pay attention to its
synonyms, antonyms and other forms as well. This will expand your vocabulary range, which
greatly facilitates the paraphrasing process. Try to apply your lexical knowledge to your
writing, but don’t misuse them. You should check whether the tone of the word suits that of
the passage as well.
2. Although the sentence transformation exercise has been excluded from most tests, don’t
neglect it. This type of exercise offers valuable chances to sharpen your paraphrasing skill.
You can learn how to apply new vocabulary knowledge and different grammar structures to
your writing.
3. Writing essays is also an effective way to practice paraphrasing. While writing, you will
have to find ways to demonstrate your ideas in words through utilizing your wealth if lexical
knowledge in a flexible and natural way.
Practice 1
Perhaps the biggest challenge in recruitment as these new studies have shown is that paper
qualifications are unlikely to be helpful in predicting who will be best at solving your
company’s problems.
 The failure to evaluate the problem-solving ability/skills of candidates through degree

poses challenges to difficulties to recruitment.
 That certificates and degrees fail to estimate/evaluate/ appreciate the problem-solving
ability/skills of candidates challenges/causes to difficulties to hiring process.
Practice 2
The market for tourism in remote areas is booming as never before. Countries all across the

world are actively promotong their “wilderness” regions – such as mountains, Arctic lands,
deserts, small islands and wetlands - to high-spending tourists. The attraction of these areas is
obvious: by definition, wilderness tourism requires little or no initial investment.
 The low start-up cost of wilderness tourism appeals many countries, making an

unprecedented growth aiming at/ targeting luxurious tourists.
 The unprecedented growth of wilderness tourism targeting luxurious tourists can be
attributed to its low start-up cost/

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 Wilderness tourism, as a naturally self-sustaining industry, has attracted large scale

promotion internationally.
Practice 3
The escalating cost of higher education is causing many to question the value of continuing
education beyond high school. Many wonder whether the high cost of tution, the opportunity
cost of choosing college near full – time employment and the accumulation of thousands of
dollars of debt is, in the long run, worth the investment. This risk is especially large for lowincome families who have a difficult time making ends meet without the additional burden of
college tuition and fees.
 The soaring tuition fees concern about the value of tertiary education is a worthy

investment between the pursuit of higher education and full – time career.
Practice 4
Zoos provide an excellent way for people to relax, escaping the pressures of work and the
general rough and tumble of urban life.
 What zoos offer people is an opportunity to unwind and a means of escapism from the

hustle and bustle of city life.
Practice 5
The word “friendship” is not used in any context to describe family relationship, but it does
imply some type of reciprocity and obligation between otherwise unrelated individuals.
 Although “friendship” is not utilized to refer to kinship, there is a certain degree of

mutuality and commitment between individuals who are not consanguineous.
Practice 6
In the past few decades, homeschooling has evolved into something that is often anywhere
but at home and students are rarely alone.
 Over the course of a few decades, home is no longer where homeschooling is attached

to and solitude is hardly present in students’ life.
Practice 6
The desire to alter or to add to the original natural state is so prevalent in the human species
that we must assume it has become an inborn human trait.
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 Such is the popularity of the aspiration for change in and addition to the natural

condition that is allegedly an innate human characteristic.
Practice 7
It was simultaneous of linguistic competence and a capacity for complex thought that gave us
an evolutionary edge over other animals.
 That

our ability to use language and our complicated cognition evolved

contemporaneously made us more advantageous than other species.

BÀI TẬP VẬN DỤNG
TASK 1: Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your
summary should be between 100 and 120 words.
In an age when literature is increasingly going digital, books hold a curious roles in some
people ‘s homes. There are few purchases which, once used, are placed on proud display and
carted round as families move from place to place. And yet that’s precisely what sometimes
happens with books, despite the existence of a digital equivalent. After all, both the music
industry and other aspects of the print media have felt the heat of virtual competition – why
not books? Part of the explanation for this may lie in the fact that, when it comes to the
crunch, nosing around someone’s bookshelves is interesting. “You can tell a lot about
someone by their collection of books” says Doug Jeffers, owner of a London bookstore. It is
not just the quantity of titles on display, however, that speaks volumes, generation,
occupation, political leanings, leisure pursuits – clues to all of these abound, if you care to
analyze the contents of someone’s bookshelves, and even casual visitors aren’t slow to form
judgments. Evidence of this manifested itself when the President of the USA, made an
informal call on the English Prime minister at home recently, and for some reason the pair
posed for photos in the kitchen. One of the snapshots was subsequent , released to the press,
and widely published. There then ensued much speculation as to how the complete works of
Shakespeare had ended up on the shelf in the background rather than a cookery book.
Household stylist Ablgail Hall agrees. “I often style houses for sale and you’d be amazed how
important the contents of the bookcase can be”. Apparently, people use such clues to form
judgments about the type of person who lives in a property that’s up for sale, and this may
affect how they feel about going ahead with the purchase. Perhaps we all seek out others
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whose tastes in such matters match our own, and we can imagine living happily in a space
that like-minded people have made homely. For the interior designer, however, the art of
reputation management-via-bookshelf is not the only issue. Books can also become an
integrative display tool. They can almost be sculptural in that they offer a physical stacking
them on a bookcase, it’s how you stack them. I’ve seen books arranged by color, stacked on
top of each other. Once I saw a load of coffee-table books piled up to become a coffee table in
themselves. Books define a space, if you have some books and a comfy chair, you’ve
immediately created an area. It’s a trick of which countless hotels, cafes and waiting rooms
for fee-paying clients are too aware. Placing a few carefully-chosen books atop coffee tables
is about creating an ambiance. No one actually engages with the content. And this principle
can be transferred to the home. “I’ve not actually read any of them. I just love the bindings.
So said the actress, Davinia Taylor, earlier this year when she decided to put her house on the
market-complete with its carefully-sourced collection of classic books.
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TASK 2: Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your
summary should be between 100 and 120 words. (1,5/20 points)
Cycads are known as “living fossils” partly because of their pristine structure, but
additionally, fossil of the plant indicate that it has been around since the era known as the
Permian Period, which occurred 290 to 250 million years ago. Along with conifers such as
pine and fir, they are considered gymnosperms, meaning the plant’s seeds are exposed on the
surface rather than being closed. Cycads have a trunk that exists mainly underground and
leafy fronds sticking up above ground situated around a single cone. The cone is a greenish
color when it is young, and it matures, it changes to a shade of yellow. Previously, scientists
believed that cycads were pollinated by the wind. This can occur when the wind blows pollen
from male cones to nearby female cones, but scientists began to question this theory because
the space in which the wind needed to to penetrate the cycad cone was too small, preventing
this means of pollination. Researchers soon began to study cycads and their miniscule
pollinators, the insects known as thrips. Closer inspection led them to believe that thrips are
the plant’s only pollinators and that their relationship is twofold : thrips eat the cycad’s pollen
and cycads reproduce through the pollination carried out by thrip activity.

When the temperature rises, a substantial odor emits from the cone. The odor is described as
harsh and over powering, unlike any other common odor. One of the odors is a chemical
known as beta-myrcene, which increases to toxic levels, proving lethal to the thrips and
driving them from the cones. As they leave the male cones, they take pollen a long with them
on their bodies. As the plants cool down, the cones emit much lower levels of beta-myrcene,
which then attracts the thrips, and the pollen they carried away, back to the plants,
specifically the female cones. Thus,the thrips effectively remove pollen from the male cones
and deposit it in the female cones, and the pollination process is complete. Scientists believe
that plants have evolved by producing chemical defenses in order to drive away animals that
would eat them. Another belief is that flowering plants use fragrance as well as vivid color to
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attract the insects necessary to pollinate them. The method of pollination characterized by the
relationship between cycads and thrips is referred to as “push-pull pollination”. Researchers
view the push-pull pollination process as an intermediate evolutionary stage for plants, using
odor to attract pollinators, repel herbivores, and be pollinated by wind-blown pollen.
Compelling evidence supports this theory of evolution as a means of protection and
reproduction to further a species. Over centuries, plants have refined the functions they are
capable of to become a sustainable species. As a result, plants such as cycads have existed
over a timeline of more than 250 million years and will be in existence for millions of years
to come.
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TASK 3: [Note: This is an extract from a Part 3 text about the ‘Plain English’ movement,
which promotes the use of clear English.]
‘The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language’, David Crystal, 3rd Edition, © Cambridge
University Press, 2010.
The instructions accompanying do-it-yourself products are regularly cited as a source of
unnecessary expense or frustration. Few companies seem to test their instructions by having

them followed by a first-time user. Often, essential information is omitted, steps in the
construction process are taken for granted, and some degree of special knowledge is assumed.
This is especially worrying in any fields where failure to follow correct procedures can be
dangerous. Objections to material in plain English have come mainly from the legal profession.
Lawyers point to the risk of ambiguity inherent in the use of everyday language for legal or
official documents, and draw attention to the need for confidence in legal formulations, which
can come only from using language that has been tested in courts over the course of centuries.
The campaigners point out that there has been no sudden increase in litigation as a
consequence of the increase in plain English materials.
Similarly, professionals in several different fields have defended their use of technical and
complex language as being the most precise means of expressing technical or complex ideas.
This is undoubtedly true: scientists, doctors, bankers and others need their jargon in order to
communicate with each other succinctly and unambiguously. But when it comes to addressing
the non-specialist consumer, the campaigners argue, different criteria must apply.
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
Consumers often complain that they experience a feeling of 1 ………… when trying to put
together do-it-yourself products which have not been tested by companies on a 2 ………… .
In situations where not keeping to the correct procedures could affect safety issues, it is
especially important that 3 ………… information is not left out and no assumptions are made
about a stage being self-evident or the consumer having a certain amount of 4 ………… .
Lawyers, however, have raised objections to the use of plain English. They feel that it would
result in ambiguity in documents and cause people to lose faith in 5 ………… , as it would
mean departing from language that has been used in the courts for a very long time.
KEYS
1 frustration
2 first-time user
3 essential
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4 special knowledge
5 legal formulations

PRACTICE WRITING SUMMARIES

II.

PRACTICE 1
Once a location is established as a main tourist destination, the effects on the local
community are profound. When hill-farmers, for example, can make more money in a few
weeks working as porters for foreign trekkers than they can in a year working in their fields,
it is not surprising that many of them give up their farm-work, which is thus left to other
members of the family. In some hill-regions, this has led to a serious decline in farm output
and a change in the local diet, because there is insufficient labour to maintain terraces and
irrigation systems and tend to crops. The result has been that many people in these regions
have turned to outside supplies of rice and other foods.
In Arctic and desert societies, year-round survival has traditionally depended on hunting
animals and fish and collecting fruit over a relatively short season. However, as some
inhabitants become involved in tourism, they no longer have time to collect wild food; this
has led to increasing dependence on bought food and stores. Tourism is not always the culprit
behind such changes. All kinds of wage labour, or government handouts, tend to undermine
traditional survival systems. Whatever the cause, the dilemma is always the same: what
happens if these new, external sources of income dry up?
The physical impact of visitors is another serious problem associated with the growth in
adventure tourism. Much attention has focused on erosion along major trails, but perhaps
more important are the deforestation and impacts on water supplies arising from the need to

provide tourists with cooked food and hot showers. In both mountains and deserts, slowgrowing trees are often the main sources of fuel and water supplies may be limited or
vulnerable to degradation through heavy use.
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PRACTICE 2
Buying things today is so simple. Just enter a shop, say a book store, choose the desired book
and pay for it. Long ago, before the invention of money, how did people trade? The most
primitive way of exchange should be the barter trade.
In this form of transaction, people used goods to exchange for the things that they had in
mind. For instance, if person A wanted a book and he had a spare goat, he must look for
someone who had the exact opposite, that is, that someone, say person B, must have a spare
book of person A's choice and is also in need of a goat. Having found such a person, the
problem does not end here. A big goat may worth not only one book, hence person B may
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have to offer person A something else, say five chickens. However, he runs the risk of person
A rejecting the offer as he may not need the chickens. The above example clearly illustrates
the inefficiency of barter trading.
Many years later, the cumbersome barter trade finally gave way to the monetary form of
exchange when the idea of money was invented. In the early days, almost anything could
qualify as money: beads, shells and even fishing hooks. Then in a region near Turkey, gold
coins were used as money. In the beginning, each coin had a different denomination. It was
only later, in about 700 BC, that Gyges, the king of Lydia, standardized the value of each coin
and even printed his name on the coins.
Monetary means of transaction at first beat the traditional barter trade. However, as time
went by, the thought of carrying a ponderous pouch of coins for shopping appeared not only
troublesome but thieves attracting. Hence, the Greek and Roman traders who bought goods
from people faraway cities, invented checks to solve the problem. Not only are paper checks
easy to carry around, they discouraged robbery as these checks can only be used by the

person whose name is printed on the notes. Following this idea, banks later issued notes in
exchange for gold deposited with them. These bank notes can then be used as cash. Finally,
governments of today adopted the idea and began to print paper money, backed by gold for
the country's use.
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PRACTICE 3
The child who is too aggressive is usually revealing tow difficulties. Firstly, far from being
tooconfident, he is actually not confident enough of himself. Secondly, he has not learnt, or is
afraid to trust, the acceptable ways of getting what he wants and defending his rights.
Why the child lacks confidence may not be apparent. In a young child, a lack of confidence
can be readily understood. He has not yet had enough experience to know what he can do. An
older child may be bullying and aggressive because he is too strictly held down at home, or
equally because he is too laxly handled and has not been helped to self-control. Too much and
too little parental authority often have similar troubling effects on children of different
temperaments.
The same may be said of the second difficulty the child reveals by his aggressive behavior. A
young child does not yet know that here are better ways than fighting. An older child may not
have been given much guidance, or through circumstances he may not have had much
experience in getting along with other children. When parents or other adults have not been
on hand to teach and show children by their example, or have been too protective of their
children in the pre-school years, it may take both time and experience for the children to learn
to get along with others, once they are in school and on their own.

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The child who is too aggressive needs his confidence build up in good and wholesome ways.
His boldness, his energy, his desire to lead and manage others can be directed into useful
channels. At home and in school, the aggressive child can be given more responsibility and

more praise for his real achievements.
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PRACTICE 4
Scientists have identified two ways in which species disappear. The first is through ordinary
or background extinctions, where species that fail to adapt are slowly replaced by more
adaptable life forms. The second is when large number of species go to the wall in relatively
short periods of biological time. There have been five such extinctions, each provoked by
cataclysmic evolutionary events caused by some geological eruption, climate shift, or space
junk slamming into the earth. Scientists now believe that another mass extinction of species is
currently under way – and this time human fingerprints are on the trigger. How are doing it?
Simply by demanding more and more space for ourselves. In our assault on the ecosystems
around us we have used a number of tools, from spear and gun to bulldozer and chainsaw.
Certain especially rich ecosystems have proved the most vulnerable. In Hawaii more than
half of the native birds are now gone - some 50 species. Such carnage took place all across
the island communities of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. While many were hunted to
extinction, others simply succumbed to the 'introduced predators' that humans brought with
them: the cat, the dog, the pig and the rat. Today the tempo of extinction is picking up speed.
Hunting is no longer the major culprit, although rare birds and animals continue to be
butchered for their skin, feathers, tusks and internal organs, or taken as cage pets. Today the
main threat comes from the destruction of the habitat that wild plants, animals and insects
need to survive. The draining and damming of wetland and river courses threatens the aquatic
food chain and our own seafood industry. Overfishing and the destruction of fragile coral
reefs destroy ocean biodiversity. Deforestation is taking a staggering toll particularly in the
tropics where the most global biodiversity is at stake. The shrinking rainforest cover of the
Congo and Amazon river-basins and such places as Borneo and Madagascar, has a wealth of
species per hectare existing nowhere else. As those precious hectares are drowned or turned
into arid pasture and cropland, such species disappear forever.
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PRACTICE 5
Have you ever wondered why soldiers are always clad in green? This is to enable them to
camouflage themselves during wartime. Hiding in the jungles, their green attire blend into the

surrounding trees and shrubs, making it difficult for the enemies to spot them. Long before
man make use of camouflaging, insects have already adopted the tactic of disguise to escape
from the clutches of their predators. By having body colors close to those of the rocks and
dried leaves, they catch less attention from the predators and hence escape from being
pursued. However, this kind of disguise works only if the insects remain still in the presence
of their predators. Butterflies and moths have developed a variety of camouflage strategies
since they are quite defenceless and their predators - birds are abundant in supply. Many moth
caterpillars resemble dead twigs while the young of certain species of butterflies appear like
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bird droppings. Adult butterflies and moths camouflage themselves too, in attempts to escape
from their hunters -- birds who are superior gliders. Possessing wings which resemble dried
leaves help certain butterflies and moths to hide among heaps of dried leaves when predators
are around. Fortunately, not all insects choose the art of disguise to escape from their
predators; otherwise, the world would be so dull and colorless. There are insects which
assimilate the bright body colors of bees and wasps to escape from being pursued by their
predators. The concept of mimicry was derived, owing to the bees and wasps. Long ago, birds
have already learnt to avoid brilliantly colored wasps and bees in fear of their painful stings.
Hence, over millions of years, many harmless insects have assimilated the bees and wasps by
imitating their bright body colors and shapes. In this way, they appear dangerous to their
predators and hence ward them off. Mimics of the wasps and bees are most commonly found
in the gardens. The furry, plump bee-fly not only appears like the bumble bee in terms of
body colors, even its hums sound similar too. The only difference is that the bee-fly does not
have a sting and is hence harmless. The hoverfly is another insect which imitates the body
colors of the wasps. Their bodies are striped yellow and black. The only deviations are that
hoverflies do not have stings and they have only one pair of wings each while wasps have
two pairs each. These variations are hardly noticed by the predators and hence help them to

escape.
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PRACTICE 6
As what geographers have estimated, about twenty percent of the earth's surface is occupied
by deserts. A majority of us view deserts as one unique kind of landscape -- areas with little
or no rainfalls. In actual fact, there are differences between the deserts, though in varying
degrees. While it is common for laymen like us to see deserts as rocky or covered with gravel
or pebbles, there are some where large sand dunes inhabit. Despite the fact that rainfall is
minimal, temperatures do change in deserts, ranging from seasonal ones to daily changes
where extreme hotness and coldness are experienced in the day and night. Unfavorable
conditions in the deserts, especially the lack of water, have discouraged many living things
from inhabiting these landscapes. Nevertheless, there are exceptionally surviving ones which
through their superb tactics, have managed to live through and are still going strong. One
such kind is the specialist annual plants which overcome seasonal temperature changes with
their extremely short, active life cycles. In events of sudden rain, the plant seeds pullulate and
grow very quickly to make full use of the rain water. Their flowers bloom and set seeds that
ripen quickly in the hot sun too. Once the water runs dry, the mother plant dies, leaving
behind the drought-resistant seeds, waiting patiently for the next rainy season to arrive. The
Cacti, a native in American deserts, adapts to the dry surroundings by having unique body
structures. The plant has swollen stems to help store water that carries it through months. By
having sharp pines instead of leaves, water loss through respiration is minimized. Besides,
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these pointed pines also help the plant ward off grazing animals, thus enhancing its survival
period. Besides plants, there are also animals with distinct surviving tactics in deserts too. For
instance, Skinks (desert lizards) metabolize stored fats in their bulbous tails, producing water
to supplement their needs, just like what camels do with the stored food in their humps during
long journeys through deserts. Antelopes like the addax, have very low water needs and

hence are able to tolerate the conditions in deserts, extracting moisture from the food they eat.
Finally, there are the sandgrouses (desert birds) which do not have special features to
overcome the drought-like nature in deserts. Hence, to survive in these hot, dry deserts, they
need to spend a large part of their time flying in search of waterholes.
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PRACTICE 7 (HSGQG2017)
Scientists have identified two ways in which species disappear. The first is through ordinary
or “background” extinctions, where species that fail to adapt are slowly replaced by more
adaptable life forms. The second is when large numbers of species go to the wall in relatively
short periods of biological time. There have been five such extinctions, each provoked by
cataclysmic evolutionary events caused by some geological eruption, climate shift, or space
junk slamming into the earth. Scientists now believe that another mass extinction of species is
currently under way – and this time human fingerprints are on the trigger.
How are we doing it? Simply by demanding more and more space for ourselves. In our
assault on the ecosystems around us we have used a number of tools, from spear and gun to
bulldozer and chainsaw. Certain especially rich ecosystems have proved the most vulnerable.
In Hawaii more than half of the native birds are now gone – some 50 species. Such carnage
has taken place all across the island communities of the Pacific and Indian oceans. While
many species were hunted to extinction, others simply succumbed to the “introduced
predators” that humans brought with them: the cat, the dog, the pig, and the rat.
Today the tempo of extinction is picking up speed. Hunting is no longer the major culprit,
although rare birds and animals continue to be butchered for their skin, feathers, tusks, and
internal organs, or taken as cage pets. Today the main threat comes from the destruction of
the habitat that wild plants, animals, and insects need to survive. The draining and damming
of wetland and river courses threatens the aquatic food chain and our own seafood industry.
Overfishing and the destruction of fragile coral reefs destroy ocean biodiversity.
Deforestation is taking a staggering toll, particularly in the tropics where the most global
biodiversity is at stake. The shrinking rainforest cover of the Congo and Amazon river basins
and such places as Borneo and Madagascar have a wealth of species per hectare existing
nowhere else. As those precious hectares are drowned or turned into arid pasture and
cropland, such species disappear forever.

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PRACTICE 8 (HSGQG 2018)

Stress is the term used to describe the physical and emotional rigours our bodies undergo
when we adapt to changes in our lives. Contrary to popular belief, stress can produce positive
responses as well as the well-documented adverse symptoms. Positive stress, as it is known,
can spur us on to greater heights by increasing awareness which, in turn, helps us to lead a
fuller, more satisfying life. Unfortunately, though, any benefits that stress may bring very
often give way to the darker effects of negative stress.
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Far from producing a feeling of well-being, negative stress induces a range of unpleasant
mental, behavioral and physiological reactions: Basically, its victims suffer from low selfesteem due to an inability to achieve set goals. This results primarily in a fear of further
failure. Outwardly, people exposed to extremely stressful situations display distinct patterns
of behavior. They become increasingly impulsive, more heavily dependent on nicotine, drugs
or alcohol and excessively prone to overeating. The upshot of all this is that unrelieved stress
causes sweating, an increased heartbeat rate, sleeping problems and inexplicable tiredness.
This list alone is enough to heighten anxiety even if you are not stressed out, but advice is not
in short supply for those who are. Although what they advise is not equally applicable to
every person negatively affected by stress, there are some useful standard recommendations.
Any strategy for tackling stress should begin with actually recognizing there is a problem
rather than denying it. When the root of the problem has been identified, it is time to react.
This involves pinpointing ways of modifying or changing the factors responsible for it.
Finally, action needs to be taken to reduce the intensity of the stressors. There is a host of
tactics available at this stage, each of which is designed to alleviate stress to differing
degrees. These include shortening exposure to stressors, moderating physical reactions to
them and building physical reserves which can provide protection against them through
regular exercise.
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III.

FREE PRACTICE

PRACTICE 9
Such is our dependence on fossil fuels, and such is the volume of carbon dioxide already
released into the atmosphere, that many experts agree that significant global warming is now
inevitable. They believe that the best we can do is keep it at a reasonable level, and at present
the only serious option for doing this is cutting back on our carbon emissions. But while a
few countries are making major strides in this regard, the majority are having great difficulty
even stemming the rate of increase, let alone reversing it. Consequently, an increasing
number of scientists are beginning to explore the alternative of geo-engineering — a term
which generally refers to the intentional large-scale manipulation of the
environment. According to its proponents, geo-engineering is the equivalent of a backup
generator: if Plan A - reducing our dependency on fossil fuels - fails, we require a Plan B,
employing grand schemes to slow down or reverse the process of global warming.
B

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Geo-engineering has been shown to work, at least on a small localised scale. For decades,
MayDay parades in Moscow have taken place under clear blue skies, aircraft having
deposited dry ice, silver iodide and cement powder to disperse clouds. Many of the schemes
now suggested look to do the opposite, and reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet.
The most eye-catching idea of all is suggested by Professor Roger Angel of the University of
Arizona. His scheme would employ up to 16 trillion minute spacecraft, each weighing about
one gram, to form a transparent, sunlight-refracting sunshade in an orbit 1.5 million km
above the Earth. This could, argues Angel, reduce the amount of light reaching the Earth by

two per cent.
C
The majority of geo-engineering projects so far carried out — which include planting forests
in deserts and depositing iron in the ocean to stimulate the growth of algae - have focused on
achieving a general cooling of the Earth. But some look specifically at reversing the melting
at the poles, particularly the Arctic. The reasoning is that if you replenish the ice sheets and
frozen waters of the high latitudes, more light will be reflected back into space, so reducing
the warming of the oceans and atmosphere.
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